|
Trailblazers in the area, please stand up |
|
Monday, 10 March 2008 |
Letter from Paul Stenshoel
Valley City, N.D.
Recently, I’ve been collecting information on a little story I am doing about a great-grandparent of mine and in doing so I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the Indians in this area. I am finding it very interesting to know how these people used the river in the early days, a lot like the way we use our highways today. More so, they traveled by foot or carts along the river banks rather then canoes, but still using the river as their guide and obvious source of water. In certain times of the year, they were able to live off the local vegetation of June berries, chokecherries and wild plums.
Another thing I found interesting is that at no time were there ever any reports of problems or threats as Indians traveled up and down the Sheyenne, sometimes in big caravans. More often, the Indians just ignored the immigrant pale faces, where as the pale faces were found to be more on guard of the Red Skins, after all, who was trespassing, in whose eyes?
Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to use the river as the Indians once did? According to Jean Miller, Sheyenne River enthusiast and Sheyenne Valley resident, they, the Indians, were using the river freely right up until the ‘30s.
You know, as bad as California has gotten with overpopulation, pollution and mounting restrictions, there was a man there who once did great things in his times and in the name of preservation, his name was John Muir. John Muir loved to hike in the mountains of California and spent every possible living minute he could, doing so.
When doing this he came across a beautiful Valley that the Indians use to like to hang out at called, Yosemite. Sooo taken by the beauty of this place he knew he must do take whatever steps necessary to preserve it. Now olâ•˙ John boy fought for years, for you and me, to stop progress from screwing Yosemite up and did a pretty damn good job of saving it. There was only one slip when the powerful City of San Francisco snatch up a glacier carved Valley called Hetchy Hetchy and with their political might they were able to dam up Hetchy Hetchy before anybody could stop them. San Francisco gets its drinking water from there even now but there is talk of actually taking that dam down now. Wouldnâ•˙t that be progress!
The point of this is Barnes County ALSO has a beautiful valley, once heavily used by Indians. A valley partially dammed in the name of drinking water, for the big powerful town of Fargo. But somebody deserves some “thanks” because a pretty good job has been done up to now to save this place from to much manipulation and exploitation, excluding Lake Ashtabula of coarse, (Barnes County’s Hetchy Hetchy). I see the Sheyenne Valley hardly getting used for recreation and public use, and wondering why?
Let me share something with you folks who don’t know already: Where the Sheyenne River hasn’t been screwed up by FEMA or the Corp of Engineers, you’ve still got yourself a prairie jewel.
The efforts of the “Scenic Byway” are nice, but how much of the Sheyenne Valley can you actually take-in, while sitting in a car seat driving 55 miles an hour? I’d personally love to see some primitive, low maintenance foot trails paralleling the river in which I could spend some hours or even days hiking, enjoying the valley more, taking in the wildlife or whatever else there still is to see in its natural state.
There have been some great efforts taken, and being taken to preserve wilderness and natural beauty in our country and it’s never too late or too much. I am all for the Sheyenne Valley being one of them, I would just like to be able to enjoy it more -- without just being in the backseat of a car or in tow of a speedboat. Are there any trailblazers out there? Please stand up!
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 23 May 2008 )
|
